With today comes the end of an era as 30 Rock has its series finale tonight, Thursday, January 31st. I’ve made a list of my favourite episodes and lines in commemoration of such an amazingly funny show. Here’s to hoping Tina Fey will come out with something equally as awesome very soon. Warning: spoiler alerts if you’re not all caught up with the episodes.

Top 5 episodes

5. Rosemary’s Baby

This episode is hilarious for exploring Tracy’s daddy issues. It starts with Tracy sings the anthem incorrectly. He goes to Jack who tells him that it’s fixable and jokingly tells him the only thing he can’t do is dog fighting. After hearing this, all Tracy wants to do is dog fight. Jack finds out about this and then somehow deduces that it comes down to Tracy having problems with his dad, who left him when he was a kid. Jack suggests a therapy session to fix this and it hilarity ensues with Jack roleplaying as Tracy’s dad, mom and even Tracy himself.

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The other storyline that I enjoyed in this episode was the page off. Jenna accidentally burns Kenneth’s page jacket and she goes to ask the head page, Donny (Paul Scheer), for a new one. He really does not like Kenneth and has been trying to find a way to get him sent to New Jersey, but was he never able to find a reason until this incident. Jenna pleads for him to reconsider and Donny suggests a page off instead where Donny and Kenneth have to compete in a contest of physical stamina and NBC trivia. As the page off is about to start, Pete comes to find all the pages there and yells at them because no one is doing their jobs. I was really hoping to see the page off actually happen, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Also Donny swears to get back at Kenneth and Jenna, which I thought would somehow be brought into a latter episode, which hasn’t happened as of yet, but there is always tonight’s episode!

Favourite line from the episode:

“Never go with a hippie to a second location.” – Jack Donaghy, in regards to Liz going with her idol, Rosemary, back to her place, and then finding out that she’s crazy.

4. Greenzo

Liz at Kenneth’s Party. Copyright of NBC.

The best part of this episode is Kenneth’s party. We never really get to fully see what happens during it, but I think that’s what makes it so great. The previous day, Liz finds out Kenneth is having a party, which scares her since at his past parties, she’s the only one that ever shows up and the parties are incredibly lame. Liz shares this with Tracy, so he can help her out. They decide to get a buzz going about the party to get the others to go, which involves the help of the biggest gossips: Grizz and Dot Com, who definitely are not the ones you would have thought of. By the time for Kenneth’s party, everyone from The Girlie Show is going to the party, since they’ve heard that T.I., Fall Out Boy and the Harlem Globetrotters will be there, along with Foxy Boxing. The next scene is with everyone in Jack’s office looking all disheveled from the night before. Snippets of what happens are shown throughout the scene: Liz kissing Grizz, Cerie hitting Toofer over the head with a bottle and Frank and Lutz choking each other. Kenneth then expressing his disappointment in everyone is probably the icing on the cake: “Mr. Hornberger, I would thank you to come pick up your wife.” “Harlem Globetrotter, does that name mean nothing to you?” “And Miss Lemon, I will have you know that before last night, I had never ever seen Grizz or Dot Com cry.” “Congratulations, you were all present at Kenneth Parcell’s last party ever.”

This is only one side story of the episode, as the main one has David Schwimmer as Greenzo, the non-judgmental business friendly environmental advocate, who saves the earth while maintaining profitability.

Favourite line from the episode:

“Quiet, a whale is in trouble. I have to go.” – Al Gore, who shows up at the end of the episode.

3. Black Tie

I find this episode to be great because certain aspects of it are so over the top. The premise is that Jack invites Liz to a birthday party for Prince Gerhardt (Paul Reubens). The two storylines that I really like are the ones with Liz and Jack and then Jenna and Prince Gerhardt. With Liz and Jack, Jack brings Liz to the party so he can introduce her to his ex-wife, Bianca (Isabella Rossellini), as his live- in girlfriend. Bianca takes it graciously during the introduction, but when Liz and Bianca are alone she becomes jealous. Liz lets Jack know, and to take it one-step further, she decides to pretend that Jack just proposed to her and goes to inform Bianca. Liz doesn’t expect this, nor did I when I watched it for the first time, but Bianca goes crazy and physically fights her. I think what makes it so funny is the element of surprise and that it is over the top.

Jenna and Prince Gerhardt. Copyright of NBC.

Jenna’s storyline is equally as funny. She finds out that Liz is going to the party and decides to sneak in. Prince Gerhardt, who is disfigured and in a wheelchair due to many years of inbreeding, seems to be interested in Jenna and sends his attendant over to invite her to eat dinner with him. She has a conversation in the bathroom with Liz about dining with the prince, which has my favourite lines from this episode, such as “I’ve always reminded myself of Grace Kelly. I’m not going to be gorgeous forever. Who knows how long this show will last. And I have no other skills whatsoever.” When she finally dines with the prince, you can see more and more that Jenna could never be with him, but she sucks it up as she’s determined to become a modern day royal. up close. To celebrate the prince’s birthday and Jenna in his company, they have some celebratory champagne, which ends up killing the prince, since he can’t metabolize grapes. Can you see why this episode is ridiculous, but in a great way?

Plus point: I love Will Forte and he acts as the prince’s attendant with a German accent. I’m so happy that he ended up having a recurring role as Jenna’s shman because at least I got to see him on 30 Rock after he left SNL.

Favourite line from the episode:

“I can get past his looks. I’m an actress, Liz. It would be my greatest role of all time.”

– Jenna Maroney

2. Fireworks

It’s pretty rare, for me at least, to find all three story lines in an episode to be so funny, and Fireworks is able to do exactly that.

The first story line is with Liz and her new love interest, Floyd, played by Jason Sudeikis. The episode starts with Liz and Floyd on a walk and then they separate ways because Floyd needs to go to church. “Church on a Tuesday? But he seemed so normal.” This is Liz’s hot dog vendor that makes this observation, which I think is hilarious. The next day, Liz decides to follow Floyd to the church to see what his secret is, and originally she thinks he’s just really into church, but it turns out he’s at an AA meeting. Instead of leaving, she stays to hear his story where he’s being so open and honest, which in turn, leads her to lying about being an alcoholic. Obviously when someone lies, it doesn’t end too well, but that’s where the comedy comes from. Seeing Liz go on pretending in the situation would be normally be cringe-worthy, but the writers really wrote some good stuff to make it funny. And of course, Liz redeems herself at the end by confessing to Floyd.

Jack’s story line involves Devon Banks (Will Arnett), the Vice President of West Coast News, whom he believes is trying to take his position in New York. From Kenneth, he realizes that Devon is gay and asks Kenneth to seduce him and find out his secret plans. The scenes where this happens are probably some of my favourite of Devon. Kenneth goes to Devon’s hotel room and Devon tries to seduce Kenneth by putting on a robe that he cut to be extremely short. Kenneth ends up telling Devon some of Jack’s plans because “I had to keep on talking to stop him from putting his fingers in my mouth.” This relationship of being nemeses between Devon and Jack continues on throughout the series and is a source of some great material, including double entendres like this:

Devon to Jack: You’re going down.

Jack: No Devon, I don’t do that.

Devon banks seducing Kenneth in his tiny robe. Copyright of NBC.

The last and final story line in this episode is with Tracy. He is getting slapped with a paternity suit and needs to prove the baby isn’t his, which he knows as a fact. This brings in Dr. Spaceman, who is played brilliantly by Chris Parnell. Dr. Spaceman does a test on him and they find out that he is not the father, but they do find out that Tracy is a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson and that in fact, genetically, he’s mostly white. This leads to Tracy dreaming that he’s on Maury and waiting for DNA results to find out who is biological father is. It turns out to be Thomas Jefferson, which is just Alec Baldwin/Jack Donaghy dressed as Jefferson. I suggest watching the clip, because it’s much funnier than me explaining it.

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Favourite line from the episode:

“Boy, it’s crazy to think we used to settle questions of paternity by dunking a woman in water until she admitted she made it all up. Hmm…different time the 60s.”

– Dr. Spaceman

1. Tracy Does Conan

This is hands down my favourite episode of 30 Rock. In this episode Jenna gets bumped from Conan for Tracy, which makes her upset, but also makes everyone nervous because the last time Tracy was on Conan, he tried to stab him. In the writer’s room, they try to come up with topics for Tracy to talk about, and the ones Tracy comes up with are ridiculous, but then he starts to hear a phone ringing, which no one else seems to hear. And it progresses throughout the show where he starts to see a “blue dude” and is on the ceiling and talking into his shoe like it’s a phone. This episode also introduces my favourite recurring character, Dr. Spaceman. It showcases the fast pace of the show and its wit, which is why I think it’s the best episode. It also has so many good lines, but without context, they just sound ridiculous. If you haven’t seen this one, then definitely do!

The first time Tracy was on Conan. Copyright of NBC.

Fun fact: Aubrey Plaza aka April Ludgate from Parks and Recreation plays a page in the episode.

One of my favourite lines from the episode:

“He’s on so many different neuroleptics and tricylcics that there’s no telling how they can mix. But what can you do, medicine is not a science.” – Dr. Spaceman

Top 5 phrases/scenes

5. Dr. Spaceman about woman

Dr. Leo Spaceman has some of the funniest lines on 30 Rock. This is just one of many that made me laugh out loud.

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4. Shut your mouth

Kenneth is always nicest and most positive character on this show, so it’s hilarious to see him acting so mean in this clip. To set this up, in one of the episodes previous to this, Kenneth goes to Nancy’s house for Jack, so that she will divorce her husband.

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3. You’re not my dad

I’m not sure why I find it so funny, but my sister and I say it all the time to each other. I couldn’t find a clip of the exact scene I wanted, but here’s a similar one. The original clip has Tracy as a child doing different activities. His “dad” tells him not to do them for certain reasons and he gets angry and responds with “You’re not my dad!”

This scene is just so funny! Unfortunately, this episode didn’t make my top 5, but if I included every episode with quick humour like this, then my list would just include every episode. To set this clip up, Liz receives flowers on Valentine’s day and she is trying to find out who they’re from.

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1. It’s after 6

This is my all time favourite line, which also happens to be from my all time favourite episode, Tracy does Conan.

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I hope you end enjoyed my list! What are some of your favourite 30 Rock episodes and scenes/lines?

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It’s been two to three months into the 2012 – 2013 season for TV shows and I’ve come up with a list of shows that are worth watching. Let’s be honest, a lot of people now are just watching shows online and not when they’re actually on TV, so it’s a lot easier at this point to say whether it’s worth it to invest time into a show or not. So if you’re looking for a new show, these are the ones that I recommend.

Ben and Kate

Ben and Kate (Copyright of Fox)

When I watched the trailer for this show, I originally wasn’t too sure about it. It looked like it could be funny, but I was unsure about the brother and sister dynamic. It seemed that Ben would just be childish and that Kate would end up taking care of him, making her more of a typical mother type character that is not fun, so you don’t really like her too much. Luckily, you get to see a bit more to her than that. Her awkwardness around guys is hilarious! She says the weirdest things or reacts oddly, but it’s great because who doesn’t feel like that at times? I’m also so glad that Abby Elliot did not end up playing Kate. I didn’t like her while she was on SNL and I was also really upset when they kept her and fired Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins instead. So I’m sure if she ended up playing Kate, I probably would not have liked this show at all.

I also really enjoy Ben and Tommy together. Tommy is Ben’s best friend and with Ben’s crazy business schemes, there’s always a good laugh. In one episode, they go door-to-door selling wine and then end throwing a party for a wine tasting at Kate’s place with all these older women. I won’t ruin it, but you can just imagine what happens there.

The Mindy Project

The Mindy Project (Copyright of Fox)

I am definitely biased when it comes to this show because Mindy Kaling is pretty much my idol. She is hilarious, talented, beautiful and smart. So needless to say, I was extremely excited to watch it. After I watched the pilot though, I wasn’t all that impressed. Maybe it’s because I had high hopes, and it didn’t deliver in the first episode, or maybe it was because the trailer was essentially the pilot. Regardless, I decided to give it another chance because I wasn’t going to give up on Mindy and I’m glad that I did. The second episode redeemed itself. I think it had to do with the introduction of Ike Barinholtz’s character, Morgan, who is this ex-con, male nurse who says the most ridiculous things. It also helped that Seth Meyers was the love interest in the episode because he’s awesome and I have a huge crush on him.

I’ve noticed that some parts are totally over the top, which definitely gets the laughs, but when it comes down to it, you can still relate to the situations that Mindy’s in.

Fox is killing it. With 30 Rock and The Office ending, Tuesday seems to be the new comedy night; Ben and Kate, then New Girl and following up with the Mindy Project. NBC is trying to make Tuesday a comedy night as well and that segues into the next show I think you need to check out.

Go On

Go On (Copyright of NBC)

I was never huge fan of Friends. It just wasn’t a show that I really got into, but when I did catch the show on in syndication, I loved Chandler’s wit, and I think this is what I love about Go On. The creator, Scott Silveri, was also a writer and the executive producer on Friends, so there is definitely that connection with Chandler.

This show is about a sports radio show host who has to deal with his wife dying. I know, it doesn’t sound like the premise of a comedy, but I assure you, it is by making light of a terrible situation, which is definitely what people going through a tough time need. To be able to go back to work, Ryan King (Matthew Perry) needs to complete 10 hours of group therapy. The show revolves around Ryan and an interesting bunch of people in this loss group (essentially making them losers). You’ve got people like a lesbian lawyer who lost her wife, a cat lady who lost a cat and a guy in the army whose wife got knocked up while he was on tour. It’s definitely a very interesting mix of people, which makes for interesting situations for this group to get in. There’s also a super weird and creepy guy named Mr. K, whose story we don’t know just yet, but I cannot wait to find out. I also can’t forget about John Cho, who is Ryan’s best friend and the producer of the show. He wasn’t in the past week’s episode and I definitely missed him; for the eye candy and that his character’s pretty funny.

This set up is very Community-esque with a cooler person and a group of misfits. It’s a great formula for a TV show and I hope that it won’t get cancelled. Poor Matthew Perry has had so many TV shows, but somehow they don’t get far. So far I’m really enjoying this show, even from the first episode, which actually made me laugh out loud. It’s on Tuesday nights at 9 PM which is a very competitive time slot (to me at least). There’s New Girl, Happy Endings and now Go On! Fierce competition, but I’m really hoping that this one is the one for Matthew Perry.

Wedding Band

Wedding Band (Copyright of TBS)

I didn’t even know about this show until I saw commercials for it a week or two before it started. It’s on Saturday nights, so I DVRed it, but didn’t get a chance to watch it until after the second episode had aired. Verdict: I really like it. It’s like a mix of Glee and Wedding Crashers. They’ve got covers, but it’s not the focus of the show, and these guys (mostly Brian Austin Green as Tommy) are hooking up at these weddings.

This band, fronted by Brian Austin Green aka David from Beverly Hills, 90210,gets picked up by this events company, Rutherford Events, which is run by Roxie Rutherford (Melora Hardin aka Jan from The Office). It’s only three episodes into the season, and the second episode was probably my favourite so far. Megan Fox guest stars in it as an actress on a sci-fi show. She and Tommy meet at this event they’re playing at some comic-con event and through their meeting, Tommy meets these two nerdy guys in high school. To try and help them up their popularity the band teaches them the ways of getting girls and helps them to hook up with their crushes by throwing a party and playing at it. In a way it was a bit like Superbad, but it was definitely funny. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds.

I’m aware that this list only has comedies, but the reason behind that is that the dramas didn’t look very good and I didn’t want to spend time on shows like Last Resort, where the commercials made everything seem overly dramatic.

If you’ve got some extra time on your hands and you’re looking for more new TV shows to fill that void, I’ve listed a few to watch.

Chicago Fire

I’m not sure if it’s one for the guys, since the main reason I watch is for the hot firefighters, but there are two good looking girls on the show too! It’s produced by Dick Wolf, the same guy that brought you Law and Order, so it definitely holds to his standards in the drama department. Each episode clearly has at least one fire that they need to put out, so it shows you a bit about the people that they are saving, but it mainly revolves around the fire crew. You’ve got some guys who provide the comic relief, but usually I find it to be pretty intense. My friends and I text while watching because there’s so much drama that you need to share and discuss what’s going on at that moment. So if you enjoy that sort of thing, then this may be a show you’d want to check out.

The New Normal

I checked out The New Normal because I wanted to give NBC’s new comedies a chance, especially with 30 Rock, one of my favourite shows, ending. All the funny parts from the pilot were shown in the trailer, so I didn’t find the show to be all that great. I kept on watching though because with many shows, it’s hard to get a feel for the characters from only one episode. I found that it’s not laugh out loud funny, but it’s not terrible. To me it seems like it’s a bit more on the serious side, so not fully a comedy. They deal with prejudice and unconventional families (hence the title), and you can’t always make light of those situations. Who knows though, this show could turn to be like Parks and Recreation, where the first season wasn’t the greatest, but gets infinitely better afterwards.

666 Park Avenue

Again like quite a few pilots, I found this one to be meh, but I continued to watch since my best friend was really into it. She got me into shows like The Office and Suburgatory, so I was going to give it a chance. I got five episodes into the series and there were more questions than any answers being given. At this point I gave up on the show, but it happened to be the wrong time to stop. I have been told that you finally get some answers after that episode and there’s a great cliffhanger at the end of one of the episodes. Cliffhangers make shows incredibly addictive i.e. Heroes and Revenge. Unfortunately it’s been cancelled, since the ratings haven’t been great, which is a shame because it supposedly has gotten a lot better. If you want to check it out for a quick thirteen episode series, it has been said that the series won’t end off on a cliffhanger (not the good kind of cliffhanger as I stated before).

Are there any other new series that I should check out from this season?

Over the holiday break (which I do realize was over a month ago) I decided to check out a show that I have meaning to watch for a while, Life As We Know It. It stars Missy Peregrym (Rookie Blue), Sean Faris (Yours, Mine and Ours), Kelly Osbourne (The Osbournes), Chris Lowell (Veronica Mars), Jon Foster (Accidentally on Purpose) and Jessica Lucas (The Covenant). This show first aired in 2004, but I never did see it while it was on TV. It only showed up on my radar after Amazon recommended it since I had searched for a bunch of one season shows.

Life As We Know It (Copyright of ABC)

It unfortunately happened to be lumped into that category of shows that were cancelled too early! I would’ve at least liked to see a full season of 20 or so episodes! I was greatly surprised by some of the actors that had smaller roles or guest appearances. The first would be that of Marguerite Moreau who played a teacher at the high school and the love interest of Ben (Jon Foster). If you’re thinking, “Hey, that name sounds familiar!” then you were on the same wavelength as myself! Marguerite Moreau happened to play Connie Moreau in the Mighty Ducks movie series! I don’t know about you, but I loved those movies growing up (and I still do!). It was nice to see her in a role other than a hockey player, but her character’s storyline reminded me of Pacey’s teacher from the first season of Dawson’s Creek. I guess it wasn’t very original since it had already been done, but you can’t help but watch to see if something is going to happen between her and Ben and if they’ll get caught.

Another Mighty Ducks alum who also appeared in the show was Coach Orion (Jeff Nordling)! Although he wasn’t my favourite coach – no one can compare to Coach Bombay – you had to love that fact that he pulled for the Ducks at the end! His character did seem kind of shady though, but maybe that’s because he sold a dysfunctional used car to a bunch of kids.

The next surprise for me were the similarities to the cast from Freaks and Geeks. Firstly there is Samm Levine who played the playwright, Bernard, in Life As We Know It, but to me he will always be known as Neal Schweiber from F&G. Becky Ann Baker played Lindsay’s mom, Jean, in F&G and she plays Ben’s mom, Amanda in Life As We Know It. Busy Philipps played similar characters in both shows; an angry girl with misguided good intentions. She played Kim Kelly in F&G (Kim Kelly is My Friend is probably my favourite episode) and in this series she played the uptight, bitchy reporter from Seattle Scene. Lastly there was Natasha Melnick who played Deborah’s cousin, Sabrina, and she played Cindy Sanders in F&G. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the overlap in actors since both shows were casted by the amazing Allison Jones. It’s unfortunate though that both shows were cancelled after the first season.

Ione Skye, who played Diane (the main girl) in Say Anything, came into the picture in the last episode of the series. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her act in anything other than that movie, so to see her on the show was crazy! If it had only lasted longer, we could’ve seen if she turned out to be a good actress.

The huge guest appearance that shocked me the most was Craig Ferguson who played Deb (Kelly Osbourne)’s dad! To me it came out of nowhere. We don’t here about Deb’s dad at all really, and then bam! There he is! I love the Late, Late Show and to see Craig act was kind of great, especially since his character is British, so you get to see him speak with a British accent. What drives me crazy about the series finale is that Craig’s character asks Deb to come move with him to LA with his new family and in the very last scene you see her with her bags packed meeting her dad. WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN AFTER THIS?!?!?

To commemorate the short lives of some the greats, I have compiled a list of shows that unfortunately got cancelled too early.

Arrested Development

This is the first show I always think of when I think of shows that came to an unfortunate demise. Arrested Development had all the great makings of a TV show. It never failed to make me laugh ranging from the different chicken impersonations or essentially anything that Tobias said or did. After three seasons, FOX decided to cancel it in 2006. After it was cancelled, I think it gained a lot more fans though. I know I was definitely one of those people. Finally, last year though, the fans got what they were waiting for! In 2013, a shortened season 4 will come out on Netflix and then a movie will be released! I absolutely cannot wait!

Copyright of FOX

Veronica Mars

I know I love a lot of TV, but I’d have to say Veronica Mars may be my favourite series and it’s really hard to narrow it down because there are some amazing shows out there. The way the first two seasons had a story arc that lasted throughout the full season was very smart and definitely kept me watching. The subject matter was great too. In season 1, Veronica is trying to find out who killed her best friend. They already had someone in jail, but she didn’t believe it was the right person and did her own detective work. In season two the story arc is about a bus that crashes, which Veronica was supposed to be on. Because in a way it’s a close to death experience, so she feels she needs to find the person who is behind it all. I argue about this with my sister all the time because in my opinion I enjoy season two’s story arc more than season one. I think that maybe it’s because there’s more character development in the second season and some pretty big surprises. Unfortunately season three had three mini mysteries, which just weren’t as good as the first two seasons. But there was an appearance by Paul Rudd! If they had given them a chance to fix it up before cancelling it, I’m sure the next season would’ve been better. But the cancellation could’ve also been due to the college curse, where once the students leave high school, the show never does that well.

Copyright of WB or CW. I'm not too sure actually.

Side note: Kristen Bell is super awesome! And if you haven’t already seen the video of her reaction to getting to meet a sloth, you’re welcome.

Freaks and Geeks

As mentioned earlier, Freaks and Geeks also only lasted a season. It was a smart and hilarious series by Judd Apatow, but it unfortunately did not do well on NBC. So many of the actors on that show went on to bigger and better things. James Franco is now known as an Oscar nominated actor, Jason Segel wrote and starred in The Muppets and is also known for his role as Marshall Eriksen on How I Met Your Mother. Seth Rogen is also doing well for himself in movies like 50/50 and Knocked Up. But maybe it had to be cancelled so these guys could go on to bigger and better things. Regardless, it was a great series to watch about outcasts going through high school in 1980, which can still be translated to the current time.

Undeclared

Along with Freaks and Geeks, Judd Apatow also created this series. And again, it only lasted a season. This time we had the likings of Jay Baruchel in addition to Seth Rogen and Jason Segel. It was a great show in that it was pretty similar to a freshman college experience. Well maybe not everything, but there were definitely some moments, like to whole relationship between Jay Baruchel’s character and Carla Gallo’s or the whole atmosphere of living in residence. Charlie Hunnam also helps by being easy on the eyes.

Clone High

I was introduced to this show through my cousin and from the first episode I knew it was great. First off, it has an amazing soundtrack. There’s a lot of Dashboard Confessional in the first episode, which is maybe why I like it, but the content is great too. The whole premise of the show is that there’s a high school with clones of great historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, Gandhi, Joan of Arc and JFK. The great thing about it though is that these historical figures are teenagers and are going through the drama that is high school.

The theme song (below) explains is pretty well. Plus at the end of the song, some of the sound clips from the show are hilarious. My favourite has to be “I’m a Kennedy! I’m not accustomed to tragedy!”

Also, you’ve got Will Forte (I truly miss him on SNL) doing the voice of Abe. As well Michael McDonald and Nicole Sullivan from MADtv and Donald Faison, Christa Miller and Neil Flynn from Scrubs. Which is all pretty much because of Bill Lawrence.

Wonderfalls and Joan of Arcadia

I also found out about the show Wonderfalls when Amazon recommended it to me. Since it was another show that it was only one season long, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. And I’m definitely glad that I did! It’s a weird premise in the sense that the main character, Jaye, starts to hear inanimate objects of animals talk to her. In the first episode, Jaye is working at her job at a gift shop in Niagara Falls and this wax lion tells her to do things otherwise something bad will happen. Afraid that there will be repercussions, she follows what the lion tells her, and she ends up changing the course of someone’s life. The storyline was definitely interesting, but I think I also really enjoyed that it was filmed in Niagara Falls and Toronto, so it was nice to recognize the locations.

Copyright of Fox

A show that had a similar storyline, that was also cancelled, was Joan of Arcadia. It was a play on Joan of Arc in the way that the main character, Joan, had God talk to her and tell her to do things, which is pretty much the same as inanimate animals talking to Jaye. It was just less blatant about religion. What I particularly enjoyed about Joan of Arcadia was that it was set in high school and obviously there is a cute high school teen romance going on, which you can’t resist when you’re in high school too (this is what I watched on my Friday nights in). It got through to a second season, but it just started to get good at the end when all of the sudden the character of the devil comes into the show, who is played by Wentworth Miller. It ends off in a cliffhanger where you know that Joan is going to have to choose between good and evil in the next season, but we never get to see how it was all supposed to play out.

How to Make It in America

Thanks to a friend’s recommendation, I checked out this show. I’m not going to lie. I had never even heard of it until he had mentioned it. But that could be due to the fact that it was on HBO and that there were only eight episodes per season. Regardless, I decided to check it out, mainly because Bryan Greenberg was playing the main character, Ben, and I had (maybe even have) a huge crush on the character he played on One Tree Hill, Jake Jagielski. So I watched the pilot and I couldn’t get enough of it. Luckily I had started watching it after the second season had already started, so I could watch more of it all together. I had never seen a show with that kind of premise before. A bunch of guys starting up a clothing company and wanting to make it big. There was a lot more to it than that though. Definitely some drama and action along the way. After the second season ended in November, HBO decided to cancel it, which was truly unfortunate. It had such a positive and inspirational message of “Dream Big or Go Home” and it made me want to go for what I truly want. There definitely isn’t a lot of programming out there that you can say sends out that kind of message to people. HBO should’ve definitely thought more about the show before cancelling it, especially after the way the second season ended!

Copyright of HBO

So essentially what I wanted this blog post to culminate to was the show Community. It has not been cancelled yet, but it has been put off the air until further notice! What I want NBC to know is that there are some amazing shows that didn’t have as long of a life to live, and even to this day, some of these shows have amazing fan bases! Community is already one of them and it would just be a shame to put something so funny off the air. Does NBC really think that Whitney is funnier and better than Community? C’mon really?!? I also may be cursed considering How To Make It In America was cancelled only after I started watching it, but we will hope that this is not the case, considering I only started watching Community this past September! And as a plea to everyone out there, if you haven’t watched Community, do it! And then help save Greendale!

A lot of people I know have been saying that it is still too early for Christmas. I do not believe that at all. I am ready for Christmas in July usually, so it’s never too early for me to get excited.

When a friend told me how they heard that Michael Bublé’s new CD, Christmas, was one of the best Christmas albums they’ve heard, I jumped at the chance to listen to it. First to get into the Christmas spirit and secondly because Christmas music happens to be one of my favourite genres of music.

Michael Bublé's new album, Christmas

Michael Bublé’s voice is perfect for the songs that he chose on this album. It’s just a very pleasant voice to listen to. One of the songs that really stood out to me was his amazing cover of ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’; mainly because he didn’t try to emulate the original by Mariah Carey and he made it his own.

He also got another Canadian, Shania Twain, to sing with him for his cover of White Christmas. For some odd reason, it reminded me of Home Alone. I think the beginning of the song is similar to one of the songs in that movie. (Update: It IS in Home Alone; the quintessential scene of the movie when Kevin puts after shave on his face and starts screaming.) This song is actually one of my favourite Christmas songs, but I think I much prefer the version on his ‘Let it Snow’ album.

This CD has a first for me; the first time I’ve ever heard a guy sing Santa Baby. In the first line, he sings Santa Baby, but throughout the rest of the song it’s either Santa Buddy or Santa Pally. It is actually quite entertaining to hear how the song is changed to fit a guy: Rolexes, hotties (yes, you read that correctly) and Canucks tickets. If you check out any song from this album, you must listen to this one.

I also ended up checking out the Biebs’ new Christmas album.

This other Canadian singer doesn’t exactly have an album as good as Bublé’s, but he’s got some great artists singing on the album with him: Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey and Usher. Also, the two singles he released for the album, Mistletoe and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, do not reflect the music on this CD. I think the rest of the songs are much better.

The Biebs' Under the Mistletoe Christmas album

The two that I especially like are ‘Fa La La’ with Boyz II Men and ‘Home This Christmas’ with The Band Perry. I don’t think there is really an explanation needed for Boyz II Men song. They’re classic. And clearly the song is that good for them to have two versions, the regular and and an acoustic version. As for ‘Home This Christmas’, I had never heard of The Band Perry until I heard this song. But regardless that they weren’t a big name (to me at least), I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to this song at least 20 times. It’s super sappy, but secretly something I love in Christmas songs.

In addition to these new albums, I think there are some oldies, but goodies I need to mention. It’s not Christmas without these songs and CDs.

Albums:

N’SYNC – Home for Christmas

N'SYNC's Home for Christmas

I remember when this CD came out, it was on every girl’s Christmas list, and I’m pretty sure I got it as a gift from my parents. Needless to say, it was played on repeat that Christmas, and that tradition has followed since.

You can clearly tell that I was/am a teeny bopper. Last year I finally found the actual CD after many years. It wasn’t forgotten though in that time it was missing. Some songs definitely made it onto my Christmas playlist. Plus, my sister really wanted me to put this album on the list.

You have no idea how excited I am for the new Muppets movie to come out! OK, maybe I didn’t grow up with the Muppet Show, but I can still appreciate them. In fact, I remember watching ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ all the time as a kid, even when it wasn’t Christmas. So a few years back when I heard that Jason Segel was writing a new Muppets movie, I was thrilled because a) Jason Segel is hilarious, b) I loved his Dracula musical in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ and c) it’s been forever since I’ve seen the Muppets.

Now the time has finally come for the release of the movie (November 23!!!) and I cannot wait! But unfortunately life happened to hand me hell week the same week as the release of the movie, so I will not be able to see it as soon as possible! But watching it after next week is done will make it that much better!

To keep me pumped for the movie I’ve been watching/listening to a few interviews and my fave, of course, are from CBC with Jian Ghomeshi on Q and George on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. Check out clips from interviews with Kermit the Frog and Jason Segel on Q and the full one with Kermit from GS Tonight.

Jason Segel seems to genuinely love the Muppets so I’m sure the movie won’t disappoint. Plus I’m so excited for the cameo appearances from Donald Glover (Check out his new album Camp!), NPH and Dave Grohl!

Anyone else excited for the movie? Which Muppets are you excited to see? Personally, I love both Gonzo and Fozzie with his lame jokes (my favourite kind!).

Also, if you want to listen to the full interview with Kermit and Jian, it’s below:

One of my favourite things to do in May is watch all the trailers for new TV series that will be starting in fall. This year I was happily surprised at the number of shows that I wanted to check out. The past few years I haven’t really found many new shows that I liked after watching the pilot, but this season has got my hopes up. Here are the new shows that I’m watching.

Pan Am

Copyright of ABC

ABC did an amazing job of advertising for this show. The weeks leading up to it, all I saw were ads for it on TV, buses and the subway. The premise of the show made me want to at least check it out and so far I am liking it. I love the spy aspect of it and how they’re slowly uncovering the backgrounds of each character. I’m still waiting to find out Maggie’s (Christina Ricci) character. I can’t wait to see what is in store for the rest of the season.

Side note: Does anyone know why Mike Vogel replaced Jonah Lotan as Dean? I noticed that in the promo picture above that it’s not Mike Vogel on the left side of the photo. I Googled it, but I couldn’t find an answer.

Once Upon a Time

This show only premiered October 23rd, but two episodes in and I’m already hooked. It’s another great premise for a show; Fairy tale characters who are stuck in their own world and needing an outsider to save them. I feel like the show is filmed more as a movie, but it’s a nice change compared to everything else on TV. I was also worried about Jennifer Morrison as the lead, mainly because I despised her character, Zoey, on How I Met Your Mother, but it hasn’t bothered me, just yet anyway. The show has a great cast (Ginnifer Goodwin!) and I’m eager to find out more about the characters and their back stories.

Copyright of ABC

New Girl

Copright of FOX

How could I not watch a show with Zooey Deschanel? Her quirkiness is what I love about her and it definitely shows in this new series. When I watched the pilot, I liked the chemistry between all the characters (especially Nick and Jess). Damon Wayans Jr.’s character was my favourite and I was kind of upset that he couldn’t be in the rest of the series because of his gig on Happy Endings (another amazing show). It has taken me a while to get used to his replacement, Winston, but he’s finally growing on me. And I feel like this show is finally getting better. This week’s episode actually made me laugh out loud a few times. I hope that it only gets better.

Suburgatory

Copyright of ABC

I hadn’t even heard of this show until my best friend had mentioned how funny it was and if anything, she said I had to watch it for Jeremy Sisto. So I took her advice and decided to give it a try. She was definitely right, this show is full of laughs. Most shows with spoiled and over-privileged teens I find are usually dramatic (i.e. The O.C. and Gossip Girl), but it’s nice to take another approach at it and see it from an outsider’s view, which pokes fun at it. Tessa’s (Jane Levy) “arch nemesis” on the show cracks me up all the time. This is by far one of my favourite moments on the show:

I can definitely see the show catching on and becoming big. I haven’t heard about it from any other people I know, but I have been trying to spread to word because this show needs to last more than one season!

Revenge

This is my guilty pleasure TV show. It is overly dramatic, but I love every minute of it. There are always new shocking details that keeps me glued to it. In fact, I am watching the newest episode of it as I write this and I gasped out loud at something that happened (don’t worry, I will not spoil it) and my roommate had a good laugh at that. I think it reminds me of the days of watching season 1 of The O.C. when you couldn’t wait until the next week for a new episode. It’s nice though that it’s a bit more grown up, so I’m not still watching shows where all the characters are supposedly in high school. I’m not sure how long a show like this can sustain with all the suspense, but I will try and enjoy it for as long as I can!

P.S. I love how Kyle from Roswell is in it!

Copyright of ABC

Of all these news series that I’m watching, all except one are on ABC. ABC has been killing it lately. They have some of the best TV shows out there right now. On top of the new ones, there is Castle, Modern Family and Happy Endings. Wednesday nights are packed with such solid shows from 8:30 PM to 11 PM (EST). It’s the new Thursday NBC comedy night (which I still love)! I’m thinking the that other networks need to take a page from ABC’s book because there needs to be more quality programming like this on every channel.

Are there any other new series that I’m missing? I still have to catch Grimm, but it is on my evergrowing list of shows to watch. Is it any good?